Applications are open for the 2022 iOi Pitch Battle! The champion will be awarded a prize package that includes $15k, a booth at the 2022 National Association of REALTORS® NXT Event this November, a feature in RISMedia, and the opportunity to meet with the executive team at Second Century Ventures.

Each entrant in the Pitch Battle will conduct a live, 4-minute pitch on their product or service, followed by a 4-minute rapid-fire question-and-answer session from a panel of judges.

Please submit your application by Friday, July 29!

Apply now

The post Apply for Pitch Battle Competition at iOi Summit appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

In this week’s founder interview, we interviewed Cyril Berdugo from Landis.

Without further ado…

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m the co-founder and CEO at Landis, a social impact-driven company with a mission to guide renters on their unique path to homeownership. We want to make the journey to owning a home more accessible, transparent and empowering.

Landis leverages data to create customized financial plans for our clients so that they can save more money, improve their debt-to-income ratio, increase their credit score, and build a stronger financial foundation. That way, they can then qualify for a mortgage to buy their dream home.

If someone isn’t mortgage-ready at first, Landis’ dynamic underwriting technology can determine whether they might qualify for a mortgage in the next 12-24 months. We give them a budget to choose a property, and then purchase it for them. At that point, the client moves into the home as a renter and is assigned a Landis Coach to work on getting a mortgage. As soon as the client is ready for a mortgage, they buy the house back from Landis and seamlessly transition from paying rent to owning the home and paying their mortgage.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Landis is determined to make strides in closing the wealth gap in the United States, where homeowners have a median net worth that’s 40x higher than renters, with home equity making up a significant component of that gap.

Banks and other firms are using underwriting standards that were set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decades ago. Those guidelines focus on credit and the client’s income at the time they are borrowing, all with very strict criteria and a fairly narrow view of debt-to-income ratios. They underwrite based on a moment in time and the data they use is static.

As a company whose mission is to help everyone on their path to homeownership, Landis takes a more holistic view of a potential client’s financial data to truly understand their situation. Utilizing technology and data science, we analyze more information including bank statements to understand spending patterns and cash flow, detailed credit scores and their drivers, rental history, savings, etc. In contrast to other firms, we take a more dynamic view of where an applicant is today, where they will be in a few years and how they will get there using our coaching.

What are you most excited about right now?

We’ve made major investments in our technology and coaching capabilities over the last six months. These will enable us to help significantly more clients on their paths to homeownership. We just rolled out an entirely new product, Ally by Landis, for our real estate agent partners that will make the home buying process much more seamless. We also redesigned the client onboarding journey from scratch to be more user-friendly. With these new launches, we’ll be able to grow much faster and work with even more future homeowners and real estate agents.

What’s next for you?

As a company, we’re always looking to have more impact through deep, meaningful, bi-lateral partnerships. One area where we’re doing this in a big way is with lenders. Mortgage loan officers send us their clients who aren’t quite ready for a mortgage yet. We coach them, buy a home for them and get a mortgage later. We think this lender channel has a lot of potential.

As we look for more avenues to create homeownership, the company will continue to explore more partnerships with proptech companies in the broader real estate and mortgage tech sectors.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why? 

I’m really passionate about giving back and spend time every year deciding how I’d like to allocate my donations across the many charities that I’ve come to love. One of the reasons I’m so passionate about Landis is because we see the direct impact we have on our clients’ lives.

If I had to pick one cause it would have to be St. Jude. I don’t see much more meaningful work than treating the toughest childhood cancers and pediatric diseases. I’m so inspired by the brilliant doctors who work so hard to improve the lives of children. If you’re reading this, please consider donating. Even a small amount will make a difference.

Thanks to Cyril for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community@geekestate.com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Cyril Berdugo from Landis appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

In this week’s founder interview, we interviewed Hayden James from Fraction.

Without further ado…

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Hayden James, and I am the CEO and Co-Founder of Fraction.

I am a husband and father and above all, a serial entrepreneur looking to make the homeownership experience fairer.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Fraction makes finance fair. The Fraction Mortgage is an innovative, no monthly payment mortgage with no hidden fees. Homeowners can use the funds for anything — paying off high-interest credit card debt, paying off a large, unexpected expense, starting a business, or even buying a second home.

As things change globally, our product is here to help homeowners across North America save. Fraction can help homeowners reduce how much they spend monthly paying down their debt. We help people save and reduce the burden of increasing interest rates and mortgage payments. We have, on average, helped homeowners reduce their debt to income ratio (the amount you spend monthly paying back debt) by up to 50% on average simply by removing monthly payments. We also help raise the credit scores of our borrowers by 30 points on average.

These numbers are life-changing for many. It can mean a life with fewer stresses, worries, and an assurance of security for themselves and their loved ones. By tapping into their hard-earned home equity with an approachable variable-rate mortgage like ours, homeowners can weather whatever economic shifts come their way this year and into the future.

What are you most excited about right now?

Despite shifts in the economy, we are excited by many things. The opportunity to support homeowners through a transition period and a chance to impact how people view their homeownership are at the top of our list.

Offerings like ours allow homeowners to take more ownership of their homes and financial futures. Along with a shift in how people view homes in the grand scheme of their financial worth and assets, a more significant, more intangible change is taking place. Innovations in fairness and transparency are taking place in a traditionally stodgy space. This mindset shift will set the tone for the types of emerging financial, proptech, and mortgage tech companies.

What’s next for you?

Digitalizing finance and using alternative data to provide access to credit is a very exciting time in history. It opens up many more opportunities for people to manage and create wealth than ever before.

We dream of further empowering homeowners across North America with innovative, AI-driven mortgage tools, giving them everything they need to make the most of their most significant asset.

We’re eager to help fix the intergenerational cycle of real estate by increasing access for homeowners and investors in a mutually beneficial way. It will hopefully lead to a more equal society. Fundamentally using technology to scale what we are doing helps us accelerate this impact and provide the best user experience possible.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why? 

Having gone vegan for a short time now, I have come to realize how much of an effect eating so much meat had on my energy, feeling of well-being, and our climate. What surprised me most was just how tasty and wide-ranging vegan food can be. I’m excited to continue exploring and learning more about this lifestyle.

Thanks to Hayden for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community@geekestate.com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Hayden James from Fraction appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of the GEM. Today’s showcase: Latchel.]

One upside to renting is the ability to call someone else when something goes haywire with the property. While a great perk for tenants, the hassle of managing a property is a big reason landlords are likely to sell an investment property. Enter Latchel, a 24/7 maintenance service for property managers and landlords of SFR and low-density multifamily portfolios that diagnoses, troubleshoots, and dispatches contractors to fix emergencies that cause property damage. Through its Maintenance Support, residents submit work orders straight to Latchel via text, call, or their online dashboard. A Latchel representative with at least two years of experience in property management troubleshoots with the client and, if need be, sends a preferred vendor to complete the request. Latchel also offers Home Assistance, which connects residents with contractors for at-home chores like landscaping, financial protection for maintenance mishaps, cash reimbursements for resident-caused damages, and a cash back rewards program.

What we like: The ability to outsource the worst part of being a DIY landlord–dealing with property maintenance issues–is a win for investors far and wide.

Learn More

The post Outsourcing Property Management Pain appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

In this week’s founder interview, we interviewed Melissa Kwan of eWebinar.

Without further ado…

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Melissa Kwan, and I’m the Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar. I was previously the Cofounder and CEO of Spacio, the industry-leading open house lead gen solution that was acquired by HomeSpotter in 2019. HomeSpotter was acquired by Lone Wolf Technologies in 2021!

What problem does your product/service solve?

eWebinar saves people from doing the same webinar over and over again – so you can imagine demos, sales pitches, onboarding, training, feature updates, and all sorts of webinars that you need to do for prospects and customers that you can never do enough of, we help automate that process so you don’t have to do them live.

We turn any video into an interactive webinar that you can set on a recurring schedule, and our chat feature lets you hop in to respond to questions live via text if you like, or respond later through email. It works like any support chat system or the chat bubble that you see on every website.

Companies are using eWebinar to run over 100 webinars every single month without a live host. Sounds like a dream? It’s not! This is the product I dreamt about every day when I was growing Spacio because we had such a small team, I was everything except for code so I was the person who was doing these repetitive webinars while digital nomading. So not only was I doing those webinars live, I was doing them in opposite time zones.

What are you most excited about right now?

After working on eWebinar for 3 years (I started it 2 months after Spacio was acquired), we’re getting close to the point of break-even so I’m especially excited about that. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

What’s next for you?

The day eWebinar breaks even is the day I would consider myself “retired” so I guess “retirement”?! Jokes aside, I’m already doing everything I want to do, and living the life I want to live. If there is a “what’s next”, I would already be doing it. Why wait!? Life’s too short and unpredictable.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why? 

Lately, I’ve been really passionate about sharing my experience with building and selling Spacio and what I learned about “doing what you love” and “what makes you happy”. Before Spacio, I had another company in real estate tech so I spent 8 years in the industry but it was only after selling Spacio that I realized I was always a little frustrated and discontented and that stopped me from celebrating successes when we had them. When I had some time to process post-acquisition, I realized I built my companies on my experience (I was previously in the real estate business and then sold software at SAP so I combined the two when I started my own companies) and tried to find happiness after – so it never really worked. That experience taught me the importance of understanding what makes me happy first, then finding a career that fits on top. It’s going to be hard anyway, so if you have a foundation of happiness then regardless of how difficult things get, you’re doing something that serves what matters most to you. So I’ve been on a mission to share that message hoping that story can make an impact on someone else.

What’s a charity or social issue you care about?

On a recent trip to Cape Town, I had some time to learn about Bridges for Music and get to know the team that runs it. They bring in 20 students from townships 4x a year into their 6-month music program with the intention of connecting them with income-generating jobs afterward. Spending time with their team and getting to see where they live re ally gave me a different perspective of townships and that is a charity that I really care about and want to support now.

Thanks to Melissa for sharing her story. If you’d like to connect, find her on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community@geekestate.com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Melissa Kwan appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

This week, we interviewed Michael Wisnefski of MaterialsXchange.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Mike Wisnefski. I am one of the founders and the CEO of MaterialsXchange (MX), the digital marketplace for lumber. I am a husband, a father of two awesome teenagers, and an avid fly fisherman. I work hard so that I can also play hard.

What problem does your product/service solve?
Materialsxchange makes it easy to buy and sell lumber by solving the problem of poor market price transparency and restricted access to trading partners. MX is built on a technology platform that creates a growing digital network of users (both buyers and sellers). The status quo thrives on murky communications via the traditional supply chain, and MX is disrupting that game with open access to the marketplace and efficient data flow.

What are you most excited about right now?

I am excited to be changing the way things have always been done in the lumber industry. Being the middle of five children, I grew up vying for the things that mattered most to me, so it thrills me to go against the norm by bringing efficiency to the market. It’s exciting to have positive feedback from our Users and the hundreds of viewers of our live stream shows; we offer vital data and information to their decision-making.

What’s next for you?
Our technology is built to be scalable so after lumber, MaterialsXchange will list another building material like rebar or biomass.
On a personal note, once I retire from MX, I foresee a future filled with fly fishing—both just for myself and guiding others on my favorite rivers.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
I learned so many life lessons from team sports. Working together for a common goal helps shape children’s futures, but not everyone can afford the equipment that goes along with those sports. Improving access to sports equipment is a priority that helps get kids out there and playing more. I am passionate about donating used sporting goods to provide an opportunity for young people to engage in various sports that require specialized equipment.

Thanks to Mike for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community @ geekestate dot com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Michael Wisnefski from MaterialsXchange appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Editor’s Note: Below is the full text of Part I of our 214th Weekly Transmission, originally delivered direct to the inbox of more than 500 GEM members on June 2nd, 2022. Some links included below are to members-only articles.]

Imagine sitting down to play a game of Monopoly. You’re dealt the standard share of cash. Someone else chose the racecar so you took the top hat. You’re handed one die (where’s the other one?) and roll a three. Baltic Ave. “I’ll buy it,” you say.

“Too late—I own it,” the player next to you says. Annoyed, you pay the rent and wait for your turn, when again, you’re handed one die. You roll a six. You tap the top hat on each property until you land on Connecticut Ave. “I’ll buy it.”

“Nope—I own it, and there are two houses on it, so pay up,” says another player. Now you’re upset. “How did you get a monopoly on the light blue properties on the first round?” you ask incredulously. “I didn’t,” they reply. “We’d already played 10 rounds before you sat down.”

“That’s not fair!” you tell them. “Are there even any properties left to buy at this point?” “Marvin Gardens—we just can’t seem to land on it.” You do the math and realize that even if you don’t run out of money paying rent there’s no way you’re winning this game without any means to accrue wealth.

If you’re a middle-class American trying to buy a home in today’s housing market, you’re the person who just sat down at the Monopoly board. To hell with getting a monopoly – you’d be lucky just snagging Marvin Gardens. But without a monopoly, you can’t build houses (think home equity) and eventually you’ll end up paying the other players – the landlords – every dollar you’ve got. Why even sit down to play?

In Monopoly, it’s impossible to win without collecting rents. If Monopoly was the game of life, rent would be home equity.

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD
Even before the pandemic, the playing table was tilted: the national housing shortage most severely impacted those least able to weather the affordability crisis. Small entry-level homes “once propelled the American dream,” according to NPR, yet they are now dramatically under-represented in new home builds. “In 1982, 40% of the country’s newly constructed houses were entry-level homes. By 2019, the annual share had fallen to around 7%.” Freddie Mac estimates a nearly 4 million home shortage in the U.S.—and even if that were to be addressed, it may not unrig the game of Monopoly for those who can only afford the Baltic Avenues, rather than the Marvin Gardens and Park Places.

We won’t see the other side of this crisis without a multi-pronged solution. First off, the rules need to be fair for everyone at the table; everyone should have a chance to win. For this to happen, state and federal legislators must recognize housing as a basic need, and limit investors’ ability to outspend consumers on every available property. Unrestricted, investor activity limits housing availability and decreases affordability. Investors aren’t satisfied simply owning all the properties on the board; they intend to raise the rent as quickly as possible, impacting not only would be home buyers, but renters too. To level the teeter-totter, regulation needs to be introduced by a coalition of bipartisan officials that would limit the percentage of investor-owned homes in a designated area.

Also, the government and big business should prioritize capital investments into affordable housing technology. Affordable housing technology – tech purpose built to streamline and enable the creation of affordable housing – could level the playing field for non-profit housing developers, as well as small, community-based housing developers. Governments and big business are beginning to recognize that without affordable inventory, even the most economically vibrant and innovative cities begin to decay (look no further than San Francisco for an example). And big business can’t attract the working class talent needed to compete in a complex global economy without affordable housing within a reasonable commute to the workplace.

The American Dream is slipping further and further away from working-class families. So many other factors already limit the ability for middle and lower-income Americans to save money; but once they have saved a nest egg for a downpayment, wouldn’t it be great if they were able to sit down to play a fair game?

[Graphic via https://www.thesprucecrafts.com]

the GEM BRIEFING

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• Long-form articles covering the spectrum from shipping container co-living spaces to the battle for listing acquisition in the first iBuyer world war (Weekly Transmission). Examples: A Waking of the iBuying Elephant, Certainty as a Service, The Undisrupted: A Portrait of Blue Collar America, Requiring Employers to Assist Employees with Housing Would Unleash Innovation, and Filling the Emerging iBuyer Vacuum.
• Curated real estate, startups, & built world links & analysis blended with out of the box ideas (Weekly Radar).
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• Transmissions and Radars have become a trusted signal for industry news and analysis.
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With a mission to attract the 1,500 most forward-thinking, and diverse, innovators, we’re looking for the best and brightest in all the land...

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The post Competing for the American Dream in a Rigged System appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world as we know it, and while we’re certainly returning to some sense of normalcy, there are a few trends that emerged that are likely here to stay. In the property management industry, virtual property tours are one of tools that increased in popularity during the pandemic, and are likely to continue into the future.

Virtual tours or walkthroughs allow potential tenants to view your vacant properties without actually being on the premises. Renters can get a better feel and a more detailed view of the property that photos alone don’t typically provide. As a landlord myself, I was concerned in the beginning that virtual tours might mean less people physically visiting my vacant units and following through with the application process. Instead, I’ve found that my listings that include virtual tour aspects are getting more attention than those without, and when I do interactive virtual tours with potential tenants, I’m dealing with more serious, qualified tenants from the start.

Types of virtual property tours

My landlord clients are typically using one of two different virtual tour formats. The first option involves creating videos, 360-degree graphics, or similar content that is included with your vacant rental listing as part of your marketing efforts. Potential tenants can browse through the listing as they normally would, but your property is likely to stand out from the competition if it includes a video walkthrough or 360-degree view that gives renters a better sense of layout, light and the home overall. The great part about this option is that you don’t need to add any additional tours or meetings to your schedule – potential tenants will be able to access the “tour” and contact you as instructed if they are interested.

The second virtual tour option requires you to actually schedule a video call with potential tenants and walk through the property with them via Skype, FaceTime, Zoom or another video chat software. This method allows you to dig into more of the specific details that might come up in the moment – like checking out the water pressure in the shower or the storage space under the bathroom sink. Because these interactive tours allow you to speak directly with potential tenants and answer questions in real-time, they are usually beneficial for both parties even though they add more appointments to your calendar.

Tips for landlords

• Treat it the same as an in-person tour: Best practices don’t change just because the tour is virtual – you should still clean and stage the unit and showcase all of the relevant details of the unit (don’t forget about small details or common areas). Prepare all of the relevant paperwork electronically so it is ready to send to interested parties as soon as the tour is over.
• Make sure to answer questions: If you’re on an interactive virtual tour, your tenants can ask questions in real-time as they would during an in-person tour. Make sure to leave enough time when scheduling to be engaged, learn more about your potential tenants and answer any questions they may have prepared. If your virtual tour is posted as part of your rental listing and potential tenants can access at any time, be sure to include contact information so questions can be answered in a timely manner.
• Stay on top of your schedule: Virtual tours can pile up quickly, especially if you have multiple properties. If you don’t already use a scheduling software, consider looking into a platform like Calendly, Square Appointments or HubSpot Meetings that will allow interested tenants to select an available time slot from your calendar.
• It doesn’t have to be complicated: Simply use your smartphone or look into specific software and/or mobile applications to help you create your virtual tour. Kuula, LiveTour and Tour24 have all been gaining momentum among my clients. Don’t overcomplicate the content you’re creating, but make sure it looks professional and shows your property in an appealing manner.

Some things are better seen in person, but you always have the option to follow up a virtual tour with an in-person showing once you know the tenants are qualified.

The post Virtual Tours are Here to Stay: 4 Tips for Landlords appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

This week, we interviewed Dan Simpkins from Dwellwell Analytics.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Dan Simpkins. I’m a technologist who holds more than 20 U.S. patents, and I’m a serial entrepreneur with more than two decades of startup success. Today, I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Dwellwell Analytics, Inc., which has developed property technology (“proptech”) that transforms residential maintenance from reactive to proactive, using data and analytics.

Previously, I founded Hillcrest Labs, now a division of CEVA (NASDAQ: CEVA), which introduced the first SmartTV operating system to the market and developed the first motion-controller for television. I also founded SALIX Technologies, a telecom company that was acquired by Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) for $300 million.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Dwellwell is a first-of-its-kind proptech/smart home product. As the first “check engine light” for the home, it provides a comprehensive approach to home system monitoring. Most of today’s smart home technology is siloed, showing only basic data about one system in the home, like a smart thermostat. Conversely, Dwellwell is an all-in-one solution that monitors and displays the status and health of every major system, including HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, and even monitors environmental concerns like mold and carbon monoxide (CO) levels.

Dwellwell is specifically built for owner-operators of large residential property portfolios, like apartment buildings (i.e., MDUs/multi-dwelling units) and single-family rental (SFR) communities. The remote monitoring capability — a la a “virtual super” — is especially applicable to these audiences.

Owner-operators of large residential real estate portfolios typically don’t have the resources or expertise to integrate multiple siloed products. In addition, our customers have a great need to understand the status and health of their numerous properties in one user interface. Repair and labor costs continue to rise, yet you can’t scrimp on maintenance – it is vital to protect and maintain the assets (i.e., the residential properties) to ensure steady revenue and occupancy.

In addition, this product identifies and alerts the user to maintenance concerns while they are still relatively minor (like a plumbing leak). As such, these can be addressed early so they do not escalate into larger, expensive, more complicated problems.

We expect our customers to see savings of at least 25% in their maintenance costs, due to their new ability to triage maintenance, optimize operational processes, and address repairs early.

 What are you most excited about right now?

Our two recent product deployments, one in an apartment building and one in an SFR community.  Both pilot customers are actively using the product, assessing and providing feedback to us so we can refine it to better meet customer needs. They are already seeing data that is helping them move their maintenance process from reactive to proactive. Their results prove our case that it’s vital for residential property portfolio owner-operators to be able to identify and address smaller issues proactively (i.e., without waiting until someone reports a problem), which serves to create and maintain satisfied residents.

 What’s next for you?

Continuing to develop additional features for Dwellwell, signing-on additional MDU and SFR pilot customers, and securing Series A funding.  We’re also actively seeking to hire additional talent, from engineers to physicists to salespeople.

 What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why? 

I have long been passionate about education and I work with several educational institutions on innovative programs to make education both more accessible and more valuable for today’s students.

Recently, for example, I endowed an innovative program at Cornell University to enable students and alumni to work together in the classroom. The goal is to give students more of the professional skills that are required to succeed post-graduation.

Thanks to Dan for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (community @ geekestate dot com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Dan Simpkins from Dwellwell Analytics appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

This week, we interviewed Jay Reno from Feather.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m the founder and CEO of Feather, a company that is redefining furniture rental for the modern generation. In 2017, I launched Feather as an accessible, design-forward and quality alternative to the growing problem of fast furniture.

As someone who moved nine times in ten years, I saw the need to provide greater freedom and flexibility to a new generation of renters who are moving frequently, changing jobs and cities, and not committing to long-term living situations.

I’m an alum of Y Combinator’s accelerator program. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Elon University and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, where I studied climate and environmental science.

What problem does your product/service solve?

There are three key problems that Feather solves for both our residential and enterprise customers:

The first is having too much baggage when it’s time for a change— whether that’s moving cities or changing offices. There aren’t many furniture options that are convenient for the way we live and work today. Feather aims to provide greater freedom to a new generation by taking the headaches out of furnishing a space. On move-in day, our white-glove service will handle all the delivery, assembly and cleanup, which means the customer doesn’t have to lift a finger.

The second problem is furniture waste. With 19.6 billion pounds added yearly to landfills, furniture currently accounts for about 7% of all landfill waste. As there are few thoughtful, sustainable options for flexible furniture, most people and companies resort to “fast furniture” that’s cheap and disposable after a year or two. With our convenient options for rental, retail, and delivery with premium products designed to last, Feather is able to combat furniture waste that comes with moving.

Problem 3: Lack of freedom and flexibility. Since March 2020, 69% of businesses in the U.S. have permanently closed some or all of their office spaces, and nearly every business has faced lengthy closures and reduced staff in the office. This, coupled with the continued uncertainty of the pandemic, has led to a growing need for more flexibility and freedom in their in-person office spaces. Feather’s partnership with WeWork allows WeWork members to easily design their office spaces with our rental furniture, without the commitment and investment that comes with traditional office building leasing and furnishing.

What are you most excited about right now?

I’d have to say I’m most excited about our recent partnership with WeWork.

With the advent of remote and hybrid work and the uncertainty of the pandemic, our work culture’s idea of what an office looks like has changed a lot in a short period of time. Along with a growing need for flexible office spaces, companies are now assessing not only where their employees work, but how. Gone are the days of cubicles and standard meeting rooms – in the midst of transitioning to a hybrid era of working both from home and in an office, when people come together, they are looking to do so in new, collaborative and engaging ways.

To meet this need, Feather launched an innovative partnership with WeWork to provide high-quality office furniture with white-glove delivery and assembly to WeWork members in 150+ zip codes around the country. Responding to the unique needs of each office tenant, WeWork members are now able to curate their spaces with everything from lounge furniture, to collaborative breakout rooms, to items that prioritize ergonomics and design – all while leveraging Feather’s sustainable and circular business model of rental, refurbishment and reuse.

What’s next for you?

While Feather has helped furnish office spaces on a rental basis over the past few years, our partnership with WeWork is a larger step towards this evolution in our business. Given COVID-19 and the emergence of the hybrid work era nationwide, employees and employers are seeking flexible office options that foster collaboration and comfort. We’re excited to collaborate with WeWork, other coworking spaces, and major office brokerages and landlords to make flexible office solutions available to many more professionals in different markets around the country.

Last year, we also launched a new, 1-month term length offering specifically for the home staging industry. The move came after real estate professionals increasingly turned to Feather’s assortment of high-end furniture to stage homes for potential buyers, and demand for a shorter term length increased. We’re thrilled to continue to offer Feather services to a growing number of home stagers and real estate professionals taking advantage of the convenience and ease of Feather for their staging needs.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

I’m most passionate about sustainability and reducing the impact of furniture waste on the planet. As noted previously, furniture currently accounts for about 7% of all landfill waste, and 19.6 billion pounds is added yearly to landfills.

At Feather, the core of our business is our rental model— which is built around our vision of keeping furniture in homes and offices and out of landfills. This is especially apparent in the design of our furniture, which is designed to last with durable top-quality materials, and a component part system for needed repairs. We also choose clean lines and a functional, minimalist style in our pieces to make them simple to incorporate into a variety of homes, offices and personal styles.

Since founding, we have kept over 1M pounds of furniture out of landfills. We’re proud of this accomplishment, but this is just the beginning for us as we continue to work toward achieving our mission: transform people’s relationship with material goods for a healthier and happier planet.

Thanks to Jay for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community @ geekestate dot com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur: Jay Reno from Feather appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Editor’s Note: Below is the full text of our 209th Weekly Transmission, originally delivered direct to the inbox of more than 500 GEM members on April 7th, 2022. Some links included below are to members-only articles.]

Many are drawn to the real estate agent profession (most common Google employment search during the pandemic) for the perceived flexibility and theoretically uncapped earning potential.

An agent’s reality tells a different tale. More than two thirds of all new licensees drop out of the industry by the end of their second year, and those who do in fact manage to survive their first two years go on to earn on average $43,330 annually (NAR Agent Income).

This worrying trend can be explained:

• Lack of access to training opportunities. Brokerages have long been reluctant to invest in structured and personalized career development programs due to a desire to keep costs down and fear of agents leaving their firm.
• Painfully few individual resources. The best training often comes from the apprenticeship found as part of a great real estate team. However, a talented and motivated new agent seeking a team has little at their disposal to guide them to the team that best suits their individual needs. Teams are underserved from a recruiting perspective, often asking their office managers to hire junior help to no avail. Junior talent, who represents a company’s future earnings, is neglected in favor of already-producing agents presenting bigger revenue opportunities today. Interestingly, managers are also financially incentivized to maintain the independent status of agents who are not associated with teams, given the split structures in most offices.
• Digital noise. The array of possible digital strategies to gain more client leads—from online listing portals to social media to data-driven prospecting—and navigating this ever-changing technology ecosystem can be both overwhelming to consider and costly to experiment with. Agents often have to turn to expensive coaches to help determine where to focus their time and investment.

Those that do find success as an agent or team lead are presented with additional challenges that I became intimately familiar with while building and leading Compass’ national expansion team. In that role, I had the privilege of meeting and recruiting 1,500 top performing teams and agents from the smallest to the largest brokerages.

Despite already achieving success, these agents had aspirations for the future that were near impossible to realize. For example:

• Neil from San Diego was regularly meeting 2-3 new agents when he traveled to other markets, but was frustrated that his referral network was a dozen West Coast agents on a Whatsapp group rather than thousands of agents in large and small markets all over the country. Neil needed a way to use his track record to activate “cold” referrals from great agents he didn’t yet know.
• Following a departure from a top performing team, Frank from New York had no independent resume or track record to share with his contacts. He complained that his manager only knew top team leads but didn’t know many new agents he could recruit for his team.
• Leila from Miami was worried about how to step away from day-to-day operations and enjoy more time with her teenagers, without sacrificing the brand and client relationships painstakingly built over 30 years. She felt a need to micro-manage team members when it came to sifting through market data from the MLS.

The reality is that referrals, team building, and staying ahead of the market are completed today through painful and time-consuming workarounds. It’s no surprise that systems and tools designed 20 years ago are not adequate for the range of purposes modern agents and teams require.

BROKER’S DILEMMA
It’s a well known fact that agents are the lifeblood of residential brokerage businesses—recruitable revenue streams that can just as quickly walk out the door to a competitor. After Compass, I had the opportunity to lead McKinsey’s residential real estate practice and lead a team of data scientists and software developers to help the leaders of top residential brokerages better support their agents.

Running a brokerage necessitates a tricky balance—one needs to determine how to effectively recruit agents while continually incentivizing each of your in-place agents to ensure their production continues. All of this must also be accomplished in an environment where brokerages earn relatively thin profit margins and will often look to attach adjacent products, such a Mortgage, Title & Escrow, to their brokerage transactions to drive revenue and much needed profit.

One critical learning from that multi-year exercise analyzing agent performance was somewhat unintuitive: The strength of an agent’s network of other agents is a key indicator of future career success.

After combing through the data of 1.4 million agents across all segments, all brokerages, and regions, some of the most important determinant factors indicating their future outperformance, or lack thereof, were:

• who the agents marketed to and collaborated with on both sides of the deal
• who the agents formed and joined teams with
• with whom they shared an office.

Interestingly, there was also a “halo effect” that indicated that the closer a junior agent was to a top producer (more deals together, more time together in the same office), the more significant the level and speed of their future growth. A quick way to assess the health of an agent’s network is to assess their referral business.

Brokerages have historically focused on recruiting as the key growth lever, as it was assumed an agent’s productivity is difficult to influence. However, this insight shows sales production can actually be improved by building a community of agents within an office, encouraging collaboration both within teams and across the brokerage, and counterintuitively enough, promoting strategic cross-brokerage networking.

These conclusions make sense. Across all fields, those willing to give to others find more success—in Give and Take by Adam Grant, he breaks down how people fare in life based on how they respond to simple requests from colleagues. Of the three types—givers, takers, and matchers—it’s those who give back within their network that are over-represented at the top. Givers look for ways to help others by making an introduction, giving advice, providing mentoring or sharing knowledge, without any strings attached.

LACKLUSTER OPTIONS
The industry has long lacked a robust networking platform specifically designed to meet the needs of agents. Be it the MLS directly or a market insights platform, the tools available to agents to analyze the market are focused on exposing which properties are for sale or rent and all the relevant property details that help the agent assess its fit with the client’s needs. The agents that represent those clients and bring those properties to market are sorely neglected from a business intelligence perspective. This became abundantly clear when we began to ask agents a series of targeted questions:

• What if you could reach out to the agents who most recently represented buyers (now owners) in the building your client is desperate to buy in, with no available inventory on Zillow? Even better, what if you could automatically make them aware of your client’s needs and have a means to hear about corresponding interest from the would-be seller?
• Would you be interested in being introduced to dozens of agents whose experience in the industry exactly matches your team’s recruiting objectives?
• What would it be like to have agents that don’t know you find you based on your transaction experience, not your social media spend?

A professional network designed specifically to enable agents to achieve their growth objectives will fundamentally transform today’s archaic network-building (painstakingly slow, across hundreds of business cards collected at expensive national conferences) into the modern era. Such a network would empower agents to…

• Find the right agents for every listing and referral based on their active and past transaction experience (listing portal and search engines ads are confusing, even to the agent).
• Be discovered for those opportunities without active marketing.
• Find the right agents for a team based on what suits each team’s growth objectives. As an agent looking for a team, knowing exactly the right team opportunities based both on data and peer conversations.
• Stay informed with personalized market intelligence, using data to characterize each market and property, and then taking corresponding marketing assets to clients efficiently and in a way that reinforces an agent’s personal brand.
• Find a community of peers across the country to learn from, without hefty coaching fees.

The network’s technology needs to work without requiring a masters degree in computer science and be powered directly from the MLS–so agents can access new opportunities while enjoying a morning coffee or burning the midnight oil.

TRANSPARENCY OF MERIT
In spite of all these issues, the residential brokerage commission pool is valued over $100 billion annually and growing, there are 100,000 agent teams and counting, and close to one million closed deals per year are introduced through agent referrals.

Courted is founded on the belief that agents can and should be a central part of the residential transaction long into the future, and the insight that an agent’s collaborator network is crucial to their success. Using data to power a platform that is designed specifically for the agent to make these critical connections will reduce the failure rate of new agents, connect agents with career-changing opportunities based on merits rather than advertising spend, empower agents to find their community, and mitigate the loneliness that so often comes with being an independent contractor.

Real estate agents are local market experts, social media whizzes, community leaders, dealmakers, marketing gurus and more—they comprise the largest and most diverse group of entrepreneurs in the country. And yet, agents are systematically underserved, with little investment from their brokerages, few dedicated resources, and tech tools that weren’t actually designed with them in mind.

Courted believes that building a platform that harnesses data to build community will empower agents to make the connections critical to their success, reduce the failure rate of new agents, connect agents with career-changing opportunities based on merits rather than advertising spend, and mitigate the loneliness that so often comes with being a solopreneur—in other words, transform the experience of being an agent for the better.

the GEM BRIEFING

A PRIVATE GROUP OF INDEPENDENT THINKERS, FREE FROM SPONSORED MESSAGES, SALES PITCHES AND NOISE

There are four parts to membership:

• Long-form articles covering the spectrum from shipping container co-living spaces to the battle for listing acquisition in the first iBuyer world war (Weekly Transmission). Examples: A Waking of the iBuying Elephant, Certainty as a Service, The Undisrupted: A Portrait of Blue Collar America, Requiring Employers to Assist Employees with Housing Would Unleash Innovation, and Filling the Emerging iBuyer Vacuum.
• Curated real estate, startups, & built world links & analysis blended with out of the box ideas (Weekly Radar).
• Special reports (a category review of Small Landlord Prop Mgmt Software, Blueprinting Proptech startup analyses, & quarterly earnings summaries).
• Networking opportunities with 500+ innovators from across the globe through the private forum & in-person gatherings.

GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING

• Transmissions and Radars have become a trusted signal for industry news and analysis.
• Articles and ideas are regularly discussed in product & strategy meetings.
• Our virtual workgroups bring together a diverse mix of C-Suite execs to discuss real issues.
• We’ve introduced members to new vendors, partners, and friends.

With a mission to attract the 1,500 most forward-thinking, and diverse, innovators, we’re looking for the best and brightest in all the land...

Membership is $139 / quarter

READY TO JOIN RIGHT NOW?

Apply for Membership

NOT QUITE READY?

Sign Up for our Sneak Peek

The post Untapped Real Estate in an Agent’s Pocket appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

The GEM is a private community built for those in the PropTech industry (companies centered around those who use technology and software to assist in today’s real estate needs). We provide a space for 525 industry leaders and influencers to connect, and also share sourced information, opinions, and articles. We are looking for someone to own the execution of our members-only email campaigns (2x per week), marketing campaigns, and social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook).

The ideal candidate will collaborate with internal/external teams to create engaging and shareable content for blogs, email marketing campaigns, social media, monthly newsletter, and promotional videos. They will be responsible for organizing writing schedules to complete content drafts, upload to the CMS or newsletter software, and finish projects within deadlines.

Professionalism and manners are essential. A hunger to learn is a must, and writing experience a huge plus—ideally someone passionate about real estate tech (aka Proptech).

Responsibilities:

• Onboarding new members (which includes writing a short bio and welcome introduction for each).
• Execution of the Weekly Radar and Weekly Transmission, which includes compiling updates about the industry once a week into a written email, and uploading and sending out a thought leadership piece written by someone else.
• Offboarding cancellations and gathering + organizing feedback to improve the member experience.
• Increasing participation at in-person events.
• Facilitating online interaction in the GEM forum.

the GEM “stack”

• Mighty Networks
• MailChimp
• ChargeBee (currently still migrating some members off Paypal)
• Google Docs
• Slack
• Trello

Location: Remote. Preference for being able to work USA timezone hours.
Time: Start at 15 hours per week.
Hourly range: $20-$40 per hour.

The post Wanted: Marketing & Community Manager (Contract) appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

We have a job opportunity to share from a member of the GEM, Condos.com, a new and pre-construction marketplace: CTO.

The opportunity:

Job Description – How Will You Make an Impact?

• Work with our CEO and leadership team to set the technical direction, strategy and execute our roadmap
• Drive technical decisions to use modern technology to deliver the product to our customers quickly and efficiently.
• Build a world-class scalable digital real estate platform.
• Directly report to the leadership team
• Build a world-class team by hiring the right people at the right time and inspiring them to make the company vision a reality
• Identify our most critical KPIs and methodically prioritize development schedule to improve them
• Prioritize resources and projects to maximize our growth and create high-quality products
• Build alignment and work collaboratively with cross-functional partners (design, product, marketing, customer, operations) to deliver intuitive solutions
• Monitor the performance and measure the impact of our product releases
• Implement best in class development processes and practices

Job Requirements – Do You Have What It Takes?

• Strong technical background with a proven track record of delivering end-user value quickly and efficiently
• Experience building and delivering consumer products, ideally at a marketplace company
• experience hiring and leading engineering teams
• Experience working in fast-growing startups
• An entrepreneurial drive and demonstrated ability to achieve stretch goals in an innovative and fast-paced environment, while building extensible and scalable solutions
• Strong vision, strategy, planning, development, and execution
• Strong analytical, data, and troubleshooting skills to bring a data-driven approach to product development

Interested?

Learn more and Apply

The post Proptech Job Opportunity: CTO for Condos.com appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

The fifth and sixth event in the GEM Soirée series are coming up. One next week in San Francisco on Cinco de Mayo, followed by an event in Chicago on May 19th. Each an evening to mingle and celebrate the industry’s progress with real estate tech founders, execs, VCs, and practitioners.

San Francisco: A gathering at Modernist (a members’ club) on May 5th from 4:30 to 6:30. Appetizers will be provided. Attendees will be on the hook for their own alcohol.

**Capped at 40 attendees. You’ll have to be confirmed on the calendar invite prior to 1 pm the day of the event to gain entry.

Chicago: Obie will host the event on May 19th from 4:30-7:00 (thanks to Ryan Letzeiser). Alcohol and o’dourves will be provided.

**Capped at 45 attendees.

For both events, GEM members are invited, as well as guests interested in learning more about who we are and what we do to bring creativity and innovation thinking to the proptech sector.

Are you a founder/executive and want to attend? Shoot us an email below, and we’ll see about getting you the calendar invite.

*Also note, Soirees are being planned in Austin, Denver, and Atlanta as we speak.

RSVP NOW

The post Upcoming GEM Soirées — San Francisco and Chicago appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of the GEM. Today’s showcase: LandOnEarth.]

Location, Location, Location. We hear it all the time in the real estate industry. Where a home is located is the most important factor in its value–both now and in the future. Each person’s personal value of a particular location is dependent on a variety of factors, such as age, interests and profession. LandOnEarth delivers personalized home matches by using AI to understand an individual’s lifestyle, needs and wants. Users can rate each individual room so the machine learning algorithm can continue improving its  accuracy. Users can share their matches with friends and family and work with their real estate agent to tour properties.

At the time of publishing, LandOnEarth was operating in the San Antonio and Austin markets.

What we like A lifestyle search engine is an intriguing opportunity that someone will eventually crack.  With tech having come a long way since Onboard’s attempts over a decade ago, timing might finally be right

Learn More

The post An AI To Find Your Tribe appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

Geek Estate is all about celebrating entrepreneurship, focused on real estate tech–both residential and commercial. The REACH program, backed by the National Association of Realtors and Second Century Ventures, is a big part of the broader ecosystem. This week, they announced the acceptance of 17 companies to the 2022 REACH and REACH Commercial programs. Without further ado…

REACH 2022

• Courted: Professional networking platform empowering agents to make better data-driven marketing, hiring and referral decisions.
• Fractional: Collaborative, full-service, community-driven real estate investing marketplace.
• Inspectify: Applies the latest technology to make inspectors more proficient and effective.
• leadPops: All-in-one solution to drive traffic, boost SEO and increase both volume and quality of leads.
• PLACE: All-in-one platform for top producers delivering unparalleled consumer experiences.
• Perchwell: Unifies real-time market analysis, listing data, seamless client collaboration and reporting.
• Reggora: Appraisal management platform delivering unprecedented efficiency and agility.
• Revive: Brings certainty to the renovation experience to homeowners across the nation.

REACH Commercial 2022

• Arx City: Underwriting and market intelligence platform to source and evaluate optimal development projects.
• B-Line: Facility management and emergency alert platform empowering owners and occupants safe return to work.
• CREtelligent: Innovative due diligence solutions, analytics, and professional insights for commercial real estate acquisitions.
• LeaseUp: Collaborative commercial real estate platform for brokers to manage projects, create polished output for clients and centralize communication.
• Matrix Rental Solutions: Universal rental application platform built to deliver efficiency and inclusivity for renters and landlords.
• SPACKLE: Connects service providers with commercial occupiers to manage and fulfill maintenance and improvement requests.
• Stake: Empowers renters’ savings journey through cash back and financial tips, enhancing tenant retention and financial stability.
• STRATAFOLIO: Streamlined commercial property management platform to save time, increase profits and reduce manual work.
• WhoseYourLandlord: Turns resident reviews into operational insights helping home providers increase resident retention and satisfaction.

Collectively, these companies have raised more than $200 million in funding and represent a combined valuation of $1.4 billion.

Please join us in congratulating the entire 2022 REACH and REACH Commercial classes!

The post Second Century Ventures Announces 17 Companies for 2022 REACH Scale-up Program appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

This week, we interviewed Stephen Baker from Zego.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Stephen Baker and I’m the President and General Manager of Zego, a property technology company that helps operators modernize the resident experience to boost retention and improve efficiency. In my role as President and General Manager, I manage Zego’s growing resident experience management business, utilized by 12M+ residential units, more than 6,000 property clients, and over 30 partners.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Zego’s mobile-first engagement platform for the residential real estate industry unifies the most critical resident touch-points into one app. Everything seamlessly integrates into the property manager’s back-end system, from payments and utilities to communications and smart devices. Since its inception in 2003, Zego has grown from a payments provider to a comprehensive resident experience management platform, and we have so much more in the works.

What are you most excited about right now?

The world is changing fast and the real estate industry is working hard to keep up. While COVID has certainly catalyzed some of that change in the past year and a half, other important factors are at hand, including shifting demographics and staffing shortages. Combine those factors with heightened consideration for staff and resident safety, online community reputation and resident retention, and we are in an environment where resident retention is critically important. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a part of the solution helping meet these unique challenges, and at the same time shape the future — not only of property management, but of the larger residential real estate industry.

What’s next for you?

After almost three years as Zego’s Chief Product Officer I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity to stand at the helm as President and General Manager, and guide the continued expansion of Zego’s resident experience management platform. Our team continues to find new and innovative ways to truly elevate the modern resident experience, and in doing so, not only affect real change for the residential real estate industry, but also solidify Zego’s growing PropTech leadership.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

My wife, Jennifer, and I are particularly passionate about supporting The Sandy Hook Promise, which aims to protect children from gun violence, as we have two small children of our own and our hearts break whenever we think about the trauma that so many families have gone through as a result of this issue. We also support both Misericordia and Lambs Farm, which are two local organizations in Chicago, where we live, that care for the mentally disabled.

Thanks to Stephen for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community @ geekestate dot com).

The post Meet The Real Estate Tech Exectuive: Stephen Baker from Zego appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Note from editor: The “Mastermind Showcase” highlights companies and news from members of the GEM. Today’s showcase: TestFit.]

With 90% of drawn buildings never getting built, feasibility analysis is one of the biggest expenses in the conceptualization of building design. Embracing a data-driven approach, TestFit’s algorithms and co-creation tools help developers, architects, and urban planners to solve multifamily, garden apartment, industrial, hotel, or parking site plans in seconds. Self-described as The Ultimate Building Configurator, its product allows customers to change their unit mix, road layout, and parking configurations on the fly in 3D for instant deal iteration.

Here new buildings are populated to give a general model of the new development and the surrounding area.

By changing the layout of the roads, architects can see added units to the property.

For a more in depth look, check out this demo video.

Current integrations in TestFlight’s growing ecosystem include Enscape, which enables production of high quality visualization, Cove.tool that generates energy use intensity, and TT Core Studio to automate parking garage structural layout.

What we like: Generating the financial optimal layout for new developments through constant iterations on the fly by utilizing AI with fewer manual interactions is a clear win. And, getting developers, general contractors and architects all on the same page with net income and firm pricing is a path to network effects.

Learn More

The post An Algorithmic Building Configurer appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

Our focus on affordable housing continues with the upcoming webinar collaboration with Women in PropTech, as we discuss Housing Affordability. The panel will be led by Jenna Louie of Ivory Innovations, Caroline Caselli of Haven Connect, Ashley Stinton from Second Century Ventures, and KC Crosby with Pronto Housing.

Gain invaluable intel and identify new opportunity for expansion, investment and collaboration. This is an interactive session.

Join us on March 16th from 9:00am – 10:00am PST.

RSVP NOW

The post WIPT X GEEK ESTATE – Housing Affordability appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

[Editor’s Note: Below is the full text of our 200th Weekly Transmission, originally delivered direct to inbox of more than 500 GEM members on January 27th, 2022. Some links included below are to members-only articles.]

For our 200th Transmission (wow…that’s a lot), I thought I’d reach for a blast from the past and modernize the most read article ever on Geek Estate Blog, written all the way back in 2014. It started with a simple, non-debated (yes, that’s sarcasm) sentiment:

Real estate agents are overpaid.

This was a refrain I heard for a decade by industry folk before I first broached this topic, and it’s just as true now, nine years later. There are countless entrepreneurs with this conviction as well, many of whom actually tried to change the game … because that’s what entrepreneurs do. Historically, there have been two camps to lowering the costs of buying and selling real estate: discount brokerages and marketplaces connecting buyers and sellers directly.

A few of the highs and lows from the past 20 years include:

Founded in the early 2000’s by Glenn Cohen of Rumson (NJ), Foxtons started life as YHD.com (Your Home Direct), peddling the model of a real estate broker that charged only a 2% commission, cutting out the buyer agent and keeping the commission for themselves. Salaried agents. Though a new brokerage model was born, the mistakes added up and the 2007 market meltdown tipped Foxtons off the cliff. The longer story can be had for historical buffs.

Redfin, which was originally incorporated as Appliance Computing in 2002 and rebranded in 2004, is a success story. Redfin was founded with customer service as its core tenant. After launching Redfin Direct in February of 2006, it hit $1 million in buyer refunds by October. Of course, though, it has long shifted back toward a more traditional agent model. That said, the company is still heavily advertising its 1% selling proposition. A timeline (and a few screenshots) of the early years of Redfin are here.

A decade after Redfin began, PayPal veteran Keith Rabois began working on Opendoor (originally dubbed “HomeRun”), modernizing the flipping business while still paying agents to bring them deals. According to Clever, Opendoor’s fee is “currently fixed at 5% of a home’s sale price, although historically it’s been as high as 14%.” It’s now publicly traded with a market cap of more than $5 billion. And in a strange twist, you can also buy homes on eBay.

ZipRealty, another early discount trailblazer, was absorbed by Realogy, the epitome of legacy real estate, for $166 million in 2014.

Meanwhile, Urban Compass raised $20M in 2013 to great fanfare, offering the prospect of a better—and cheaper—way to rent and buy. They’ve since retreated back to a traditional model.

Another intriguing, though short-lived, approach set on disrupting the industry includes GoldenKey (formerly SoloPro), which raised $1.75 million in 2017 with a model that involved paying an agent a flat fee for required services and getting a 3% rebate when transacting with the help of one of the company’s partner agents (though not all states allowed for this rebate). The company is now defunct, having all its assets acquired by Landis in 2018. Others that didn’t make the dent they intended? Canvas built a platform for buyers to advertise themselves to homeowners in their interested areas, prior to pivoting to a local brokerage in New Jersey (and now working for Compass). Keyzio, originally a technology-focused brokerage helping buyers and sellers connect directly, has come and gone. HomeVana was another that took a failed stab at it. Reali had similar ambitions in 2016, but is now a straight power-buyer advertising buy before you sell, cash offers, and loans. HomeBay, SideDoor, ListingDoor, and Open Listings (acquired by Opendoor) all played a hand.

All of these companies have one thing in common: disrupting agents and unbundling the industry. Turns out, that doesn’t work so well. In the fight to reduce commissions, the graveyard and pivots grow by the year.

Disclosure: I consider this a thorough yet not comprehensive look at historical players.

NOT A QUESTION OF WORTH
The thing is, the most relevant question is overlooked. I don’t want to talk about  “Are agents worth 6%?” There are clearly many, many entrepreneurs who think the answer is no who are working on solutions to change the status quo. Many years and lots of money has been spent by some incredibly smart people trying to change the economics of real estate.

Yet commissions have not substantially changed from the commonly accepted 6%. A survey by Real Trends did find that “the average commission slid to 4.94 percent in 2020 from 4.96 percent in 2019 and 5.03 percent in 2018.” But, by and large, people still list with traditional agents.

The real question here is why none of those efforts have succeeded at scale?

Before diving in further, a disclosure that is more or less the same as my original one in 2014: I have no idea whether agents are worth 6% of a real estate transaction. I’ve (still) never bought or sold a (full) house (my portfolio includes shares of several homes via Arrived), so I don’t have an informed opinion to share on the topic.

DIFFERING DYNAMICS
Most people buy a home every seven to 15 years. That’s a long, long time between transactions. Compare that to paying your credit card monthly. Or buying a plane ticket every couple months. Sharing a photo or sending a daily text. Reading the morning news headlines. Writing a blog post a couple of times a week. Eating lunch and dinner everyday. Buying a new shirt every three months. You get the picture.

A housing transaction can be bad—it may be terrible or even horrendous—but it won’t substantially change the fact that people are still going to do it. The reality is, buyers don’t know what they don’t know. And they won’t be needing to go through the process for another decade. By then, that past stress and anxiety won’t seem so bad.

There is a fairly low bar for me to try a new website or app in search of an affordable plane ticket. I ask no one before I make that decision, because the consequences of a poor experience are small. If it doesn’t go well, who really cares because it just cost me an extra 20 minutes, or $50. It’s not the end of the world.

A house, however, is the single biggest financial transaction most people ever make. People don’t make that transaction without talking to their friends, families, and professionals for advice. Those conversations take place over the course of months and years, the vast majority of which include iterations of “who is your real estate agent?,” “you need an agent to represent your interests,” “my agent did X,” and “you shouldn’t/can’t sell FSBO.”

Why? Because those people are just recounting their experiences, all of which included an agent. Point being, there is an incredibly strong social pressure to use an agent, since everyone else has—and you don’t want to be the sucker who tried to do it on your own, and got screwed out of $50,000 or $200,000 (or some other high $$ amount).

DISCOUNT BROKERAGE MODELS
You can not sell a house with only one side of the transaction accounted for, meaning cooperation from the opposing representation is required to finish a deal. The whole industry will battle you tooth and nail, the minute you start rebating commissions. Just ask Redfin, which has 18 years of battle scars to prove it. And, of course, NAR is one of the largest and most influential trade associations in existence. With traditional agents far outnumbering agents employed by discount brokerages—they ALL talk nonstop with consumers (that’s what agents do, after all) … not much of which is favorable to discount brokers winning over buyers and sellers.

Can discount brokerages digitize the whole transaction, and cut costs to buy and sell at scale in the process? Redfin is making strides, but it’s still a long, long road to changing consumer behaviors. Prevu is rebating buyers 2%. Then there’s Trelora, perhaps the shining light of a discount model, still hawking full-service for thousands less as a value proposition more than a decade after its founding. Meanwhile, REX is no stranger to legal controversy (the latest is NAR’s countersuit).

BUYER-SELLER MARKETPLACES
Access to a large audience of engaged buyers and sellers is table stakes. And easier said than done. Potential sellers need to be able to post their house in a private and trusted environment and receive serious buyer inquiries. Otherwise, it’s a gimmick. The chicken and egg problem is massive, particularly given the infrequency of people buying or selling. How on earth do you target and find home owners? You either need to get VERY, very geographically focused—i.e. convince every homeowner in a specific ZIP code to sign up, or you need massive, massive distribution (i.e. Zillow, Redfin, CoStar, or Realtor.com scale). Having taken the SPAC, NextDoor’s massive audience—and a business model not primarily reliant on agents—leads me to still believe the social network is a sleeper for connecting buyers and sellers directly (real estate is already a focal area for them).

Zillow’s Make Me Move was an early indicator that someone might sell. How do you differentiate beyond that? Sure, many people don’t want to publicly state they are thinking about selling, but where can they post privately where buyers will actually see it? This gets us into the whole pocket listings opportunity. Though the company shut down Make Me Move, I still believe the feature will be brought back as part of a vastly superior offers experience, enabling every home in America to be available for auction—anytime, anyplace. Perhaps, with prices only visible to pre-approved buyers. Its exit from iBuying makes this possibility even more likely.

Speaking to founders working on tackling this approach, I’ve yet to get past the “will this work at all?” question, let alone figuring out how to make money doing it (aside from pivoting back to being a brokerage).

DOWNWARD WE GO
Coming back to prior efforts that haven’t succeeded at scale, there are a few new angles to consider on this topic, given a decade has passed…

• The DOJ forcing the divorcing of commissions would be the single greatest commission lever we’ve ever seen, putting the impetus on buyer’s brokers to collect their commission directly. Should that happen, you can bet we’ll see a noticeable and quick downward tick on commissions. Jeff Corbett wrote a thorough analysis of this topic for those wishing to dive deeper.
• Redfin is “publishing the buyer’s agent commission for over 700,000 home listings in regions where this data is available.” Chalk up a win for transparency.
• Mandatory commission compensation might disappear if Realogy has anything to say about it, “publicly calling for the National Association of Realtors to end a requirement that listing brokers offer commissions to buyer brokers in order to submit listings to Realtor-affiliated multiple listing services.”
• We’re clearly in a sellers market—ATTOM data shows sellers “realized a profit of $94,092 on the typical sale in 2021, up 45 percent from $64,931 in 2020”–which some believe will usher in the end of buyer agency *without* government action. Jim Klinge and Robert Hahn discussed this topic in-depth just this week on a podcast.

All that said, an Offers product is the end game. Full stop. Once a common standard to submit bids/offers achieves scale, commissions will be able to fluctuate up and down much more rapidly than in today’s word-of-mouth driven black box. Now is the time for innovators to push forward with products and services that enable commissions compression to take hold, given the favorable environment of stacked conditions. Once the market turns, and it will, you’ll be back to pushing a barrel up a steep incline laced with boulders.

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